Chapter II: Introduction: xi

I. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH 1

II. SPENSER 21

III. SHAKSPEARE 34

IV. THE CHARACTERS OF SHAKSPEARE'S PLAYS
CYMBELINE 50
MACBETH 60
IAGO 72
HAMLET 76
ROMEO AND JULIET 84
MIDSUMMERNIGHT'S DREAM 85
FALSTAFF 88
TWELFTH NIGHT 96

V. MILTON 101

VI. POPE 118

VII. ON THE PERIODICAL ESSAYISTS 133

VIII. THE ENGLISH NOVELISTS 155

IX. CHARACTER OF MR. BURKE 172

X. MR. WORDSWORTH 191

XI. MR. COLERIDGE 205

XII. MR. SOUTHEY 216

XIII. ELIA 220

XIV. SIR WALTER SCOTT 227

XV. LORD BYRON 236

XVI. ON POETRY IN GENERAL 251

XVII. MY FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH POETS 277

XVIII. ON THE CONVERSATION OF AUTHORS 301

XIX. OF PERSONS ONE WOULD WISH TO HAVE SEEN 315

XX. ON READING OLD BOOKS 333

NOTES 349

CHRONOLOGY OF HAZLITT'S LIFE AND WRITINGS

1778 William Hazlitt born at Maidstone in Kent, April 10.

1783-1786 Residence in America.

1787 ff. Residence at Wem in Shropshire.

1793-1794 Student in the Hackney Theological College.

1798 Meeting with Coleridge and Wordsworth.

1798?-1805 Study and practice of painting.

1802 Visit to Paris.

1805 _Essay on the Principles of Human Action_.

1806 _Free Thoughts on Public Affairs_.

1807 _An Abridgment of the Light of Nature Revealed, by Abraham Tucker_.

_Reply to the Essay on Population by the Rev. T. R. Malthus_.

_Eloquence of the British Senate_.

1808 Marriage with Sarah Stoddart and settlement at Winterslow.

1810 _A New and Improved Grammar of the English Tongue_.

1812 Removal to London.--Lectures on philosophy at the Russell Institution.

1812-1814 On the staff of the _Morning Chronicle_.

1814 Begins contributing to the _Champion_, _Examiner_, and the
_Edinburgh Review_.

1816 _Memoirs of the Late Thomas Holcroft_.

1817 _The Round Table_.

_The Characters of Shakespeare's Plays_.

1818 _A View of the English Stage_.

_Lectures on the English Poets_. (Delivered at the Surrey
Institution.)

1819 _Lectures on the English Comic Writers_. (Delivered at the Surrey
Institution at the close of 1818.)

_A Letter to William Gifford Esq., from William Hazlitt Esq._

_Political Essays_.

1820 _Lectures on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth_.
(Delivered at the Surrey Institution at the close of 1819.)

Joins the staff of the _London Magazine_.

1821-22 _Table Talk, or Original Essays_ (2 volumes).

1822 Episode of Sarah Walker.--Journey to Scotland to obtain a divorce
from his wife.

1823 _Liber Amoris, or the New Pygmalion_.

_Characteristics in the Manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims_.

1824 _Sketches of the Principal Picture-Galleries in England_.

_Select British Poets_.

Marriage with Mrs. Bridgewater.--Tour of the Continent.

1825 _The Spirit of the Age_.

1826 _Notes of a Journey through France and Italy_.

_The Plain Speaker, Opinions on Books, Men, and Things_ (2 volumes).

1828-1830 _Life of Napoleon Buonaparte_ (4 volumes).

1830 _Conversations of James Northcote_.

Death of William Hazlitt, September 18.